Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards peer feedback in grade 10 english speaking classes at vung tau high school (master’s thesis)

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BARIA - VUNGTAU UNIVERSITY TA THI THU GIANG TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS PEER FEEDBACK IN GRADE 10 ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES AT VUNG TAU HIGH SCHOOL MASTER’S THESIS Ba Ria-Vung Tau, March 2023 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BARIA - VUNGTAU UNIVERSITY TA THI THU GIANG TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS PEER FEEDBACK IN GRADE 10 ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES AT VUNG TAU HIGH SCHOOL MASTER’S THESIS Submitted to the Postgraduate Institute in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL Course code: 8140111 Supervisor’s name: Dr NGUYEN HOANG TUAN Ba Ria-Vung Tau, March 2023 i CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled: TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS PEER FEEDBACK IN GRADE 10 ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES AT VUNG TAU HIGH SCHOOL In terms of the statement of requirements for Theses in Master’s programs issued by Higher Degree Committee of Postgraduate Institute, Ba Ria Vung Tau University, Ba Ria Vung Tau, March 2023 Ta Thi Thu Giang ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Ta Thi Thu Giang, being a candidate for the degree of TESOL accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan, and reproduction for theses Ba Ria Vung Tau, March 2023 Ta Thi Thu Giang iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis supervisor Dr Nguyen Hoang Tuan for his invaluable guidance, encouragement, kindness and support from the very early stages of this thesis His support and contributions helped me to cope with the painstaking task of writing the thesis Being one of his students is a real privilege for me Secondly, I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to Vung Tau high school for providing me with good conditions and great opportunities to carry out my study Special thanks to my colleagues of Foreign Language department in my school for their teaching experience, inspiration and constructive suggestions for this research paper My thanks also go to all the participants in this study including the students and the teachers who accepted to be part of my research My thesis could not have been finished without their great contribution Finally, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my precious family and my best friends because of their love and support in the progress of conducting this study iv ABSTRACT Among different factors contributing to foreign language teaching and learning, affective variables such as teachers’ and learners' attitudes are of paramount importance This study, therefore, aimed to explore teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards peer feedback in grade 10 speaking classes at Vung Tau high school Three aspects of attitude including cognitive, affective, and behavioral components were taken into consideration Both quantitative and qualitative approach were employed in this study, i.e data were collected from questionnaires, in-depth interviews and semi-structured interviews There were 80 grade 10 students were asked to complete the questionnaires in the survey, 10 of whom were selected randomly for the in-depth interviews In addition, 10 high school teachers of English at Vung Tau high school agreed to participate in the semi-structured interviews As for data analysis, descriptive statistics (e.g., mean, standard deviation) were used to analyze quantitative data, whereas qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis The findings of the study indicated that both students and teachers expressed highly positive attitudes towards peer feedback implementation in grade 10 English speaking classes However, while students and teachers shared the same attitudes in affective and behavioral components, there was a significant difference between their perception of peer feedback concerning cognitive component Among the five areas of speaking competence, students agreed that they enhanced much more in lexical resource, discourse management and interactive communication than grammatical resource and pronunciation, which showed a contrast with teachers’ belief The outcome of this research has a number of important implications for administrators, teachers and students for future practice (255 words) Keywords: peer feedback, cognitive attitudes, affective attitudes, behavioral attitudes, high school students and teachers, grade 10 English speaking classes v TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii ABSTRACT iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii LIST OF APPENDICES ix LIST OF TABLES x LIST OF FIGURES xi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1 Background to the study 1.2 Statement of the problem Aims and objectives of the study 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Organization of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Second Language Teaching and Learning Theories 2.1.1 Social constructivism theory 2.1.2 Social interaction 10 2.1.3 Scaffolding 10 2.2 Definitions of key terms 11 2.2.1 Feedback 11 2.2.2 Peer feedback 12 2.2.3 Speaking skills for EFL learners 13 2.2.4 Peer feedback and speaking 14 vi 2.3 Attitudes 15 2.3.1 Attitude models 17 2.3.2 The components of attitudes 20 2.4 Assessing speaking performance at level B1 of CEFR 22 2.5 The review of previous related studies 25 2.6 Conceptual framework of the study 31 2.7 Summary 33 CHAPTER METHOLOGY 34 3.1 Research setting and participants 34 3.1.1 Research setting 34 3.1.2 Participants 38 3.2 Research design 38 3.3 Research instruments 41 3.3.1 Questionnaires 41 3.3.2 In-depth interviews 43 3.3.3 Semi-structured interviews 43 3.4 Research procedure 45 3.5 Data collection procedure 48 3.6 Data analysis procedures 49 3.7 Reliability 50 3.8 Summary 51 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 52 4.1 Findings 52 4.1.1 Findings of the survey of student questionnaires and in-depth interviews 52 4.1.2 Findings of teacher semi-structured interviews 64 4.1.3 Summary 73 4.2 Discussions 73 4.2.1 Research question 73 vii 4.2.2 Research question 78 4.2.3 Research question 83 4.3 Summary 85 CHAPTER CONCLUSIONS 86 5.1 Conclusions 86 5.2 Implications 89 5.2.1 Implications for school administrators 89 5.2.2 Implications for teachers 90 5.2.3 Implications for students 91 5.3 Limitations of the study 92 5.4 Recommendations 93 REFERENCES 94 APPENDICES 105 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CEFR: Common European Framework of Reference for Languages EFL: English as a Foreign Language L2: Second language USA: The United States of America ZPD: Zone of Proximal Development 126 II Affective component Questions and Answers Teachers’ code 10 Do you feel confident when 11 Do you prefer applying peer applying peer feedback in feedback to teacher’s correction in English speaking classes? teaching English speaking skills ? Yes Peer feedback helps reduce the students’ fear of teacher’s authority T1 T2 Yes, I frequently use it in my Peer feedback can not only help us speaking classes save time but also help learners make good use of their own effort to make their speaking expressive and effective Yes Because students are more comfortable with their classmates, getting corrected T3 by their own friends evokes less anxiety and creates less threatening environment T4 Yes, I am comfortable with peer The classroom becomes less dominated feedback It encourages by the teacher collaborative work during my speaking lessons I am happy with peer feedback It Peer feedback can help us save time T5 reduces the teacher talking time because at the same time, students can and increases student talking receive feedback from all their time classmates 127 T6 I am confident to use peer Peer feedback makes the classroom feedback It reduces the teacher atmosphere more supportive and talking time and increases student friendlier talking time Yes It increases the students’ involvement in classroom activities T7 Yes Since peer feedback offers opportunities to the students to be T8 responsible for their own learning, it also increases learner autonomy T9 I like it when peer feedback Only teacher’s correction makes the seems to connect us together lessons monotonous Students play the Teacher and students share the role of passive receiver of knowledge same responsibility for comments and assessment Yes T10 Through peer feedback, students are more active participants; they are no longer passive receivers 128 III Behavioral component Questions and Answers Teachers’ code 12 Would you support continuing 13 Would you support continuing the use of peer feedback in English the use of peer feedback in classes classes of other grades? Why or of other English skills? Why or T1 why not? why not? Yes, I think that peer feedback is Writing classes need peer feedback very essential and useful so I think it the most Through peer feedback, should be used in other grades in the learners engage in critical future evaluation of peer text for the purpose of exchanging help for revision T2 Yes, peer feedback will be useful in I don’t support the use of peer every grade feedback in classes of other English skills because most peer feedback focused on product rather than the processes of writing, which does not help enhance writing skills for students T3 I think it is quite efficient in Yes, I think it’s writing Because teaching, so I believe that we should learners can learn more about use it in grade 11 and 12 writing and revision by reading other's drafts critically T4 Yes, I would, because they facilitate In writing, students’ awareness of my teaching and also my students as what makes writing successful and 129 well So I'm trying to continue to use effective can be enhanced through it for the next grade peer feedback Yes I support the use of peer feedback in other skills T5 T6 Of course, I support the use of peer I support the use of peer feedback feedback in the future in writing because through peer feedback learners eventually become more autonomous writers Yes I think peer feedback can be of great use for the other skills but it T7 seems that using peer feedback can cause less writing apprehension and more confidence as well as establish a social context for writing Yes Peer feedback is necessary for writing skills because the practice T8 of peer feedback allows students to receive more individual comments as well as giving reviewers the opportunity to practice and develop different language skills T9 Yes, of course With all the benefits I support peer feedback use in I have mentioned, I think the use of writing because I think it’s helpful peer feedback in English speaking for students classes is very important So if teachers can use peer feedback in 130 their classes of all grades, it is very good T10 Yes, I think I will apply peer Peer feedback is beneficial to feedback in grade 11 and 12 writing in developing critical thinking, learner autonomy and social interaction among students 131 APPENDIX E: FEEDBACK FORM FOR GROUPS The representatives’ names: _/ Feedback Group N · _ Please circle the number of score N· Score Content Very poor Poor Average Good Excellent Fluency Vocabulary Grammar 4 Pronunciation Ideas Confidence Total Notes: Things we like best about the presentation: Things need improving about the presentation: 132 APPENDIX F: FEEDBACK FORM FOR INDIVIDUAL The representatives’ names: _/ Feedback provider’s name: _ Please circle the number of score N· Score Content Very poor Poor Average Good Excellent Fluency Vocabulary Grammar 4 Pronunciation Ideas Confidence Total Notes: Things you like best about the presentation: Things need improving in the presentation: 133 APPENDIX G: DEMONSTRATIONS OF FEEDBACK FORMS FOR GROUP AND INDIVIDUAL 134 135 136 137 138 139 140